Barcelona coach Hansi Flick has slammed a report that he was forced to pick Lamine Yamal in the Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain this month, calling him “bulls…”.
Yamal, 18, reportedly arrived late for a pre-match activation session, with Flick having already dropped Raphinha and Marcus Rashford this season, as well as others last year, for committing the same offence.
However, a report claims the board intervened, forcing the German coach to pick the teenager despite having decided to bring him off the bench.
“I’m sorry for that word, but it’s totally insane…” Flick said at a news conference Friday when asked to clarify what happened.
“I have never, ever [would do that]. Also, in this club, with Deco and the club, I really appreciate the way they believe in our work.
“We trust and they would never ask that question. I can say it’s bullshit and I have nothing to hide because if anyone says that they’re lying.”
Yamal’s appearance against PSG is the only start he has made for Barca since August due to a serious groin injury, which forced him to miss seven matches for club and country.
He missed the next match, a 4-1 defeat to Sevilla, but is back in training and Flick says he is ready for “a few minutes” on Saturday when Barca host Girona in La Liga.
Fermín López is also set to return, but Barça are without many strikers, with Robert Lewandowski, Dani Olmo, Ferran Torres and Raphinha all ruled out.
“We have to find solutions,” Flick added. “We need to find players who can start and handle the 90 minutes.
“In attack we are missing a lot of players, but we have to find them. We have to manage. There are also maybe players from La Masia who might be an option.”
After Girona, Barça hosts Olympiacos in the Champions League before visiting Real Madrid in the first Classic of the season on October 26, a match for which Flick says Raphinha should be back.
Torres should also be back by then, but Olmo and Lewandowski, as well as Gavi and goalkeepers Joan García and Marc-André ter Stegen, are not as close to returning.
Therefore, youngsters Roony Bardghji, Toni Fernández and Dro Fernández could come into Flick’s thoughts as Barca look to regain their form after losing back-to-back matches against PSG and Sevilla before the international break.
“We need to improve the situation,” Flick said. “It’s the attitude, the mentality on the pitch. We are Barça. Our fans in the stadium want to see that we are fighting.
“It’s not ‘OK, we were good last season and we won three titles’. Now it’s a new season. We now have to start every game with this attitude. We want to fight for every title.
“This season we have to start again. The break is good. It’s also a good opportunity for other players, young players or players who haven’t played as many minutes.”
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Meanwhile, Flick also said he didn’t like La Liga’s decision to move Barca’s away game at Villarreal to Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on December 20.
That means Barca will travel to the United States for a league match in late December, return to Barcelona to face Espanyol in early January, and then fly to Saudi Arabia for the Spanish Super Cup.
“I can understand why the players are not happy, I’m not happy, but in the end it’s La Liga,” he said.
“They decide to have this match and we have to play. For me, of course, we have the Christmas break, between the [Miami match] then the first match against Espanyol, then we fly to Saudi Arabia.
“That’s how it is. We know the situation and we respect it.”
